A click on the “Zooey Deschanel” tag indicates that we’ve been somewhat stingy in handing out compliments to Miss Zooey. Well here’s one: we like what she’s handing out in this editorial. We’re digging the ’70s rocker chick/glamorous groupie vibe in the first two pics, but we have to admit, she’s serving it up in that floral Valentino in the third picture. Yes, it’s twee, but she’s pretty much the Queen of Twee.

Is having children on her priority list?: “I’m not going to answer that question. I’m not mad at you for asking that question, but I’ve said it before: I don’t think people ask men those questions.”

What she has learned from being married and divorced: “I will say this: Whether you’re married or not, if you’re in a relationship, you have to wake up every day and say, ‘I want to stay with this person.’ You have to make the commitment every day and every second and every minute.'”

On her speech patterns: “I became aware that people were criticizing the way I speak, which seems weird to me. I speak the way I speak, and I am an intelligent person. Sometimes I lean into California-speak more for entertainment value. It’s not that I can’t live in a world without the word like.”

Hmm normally she bugs me but I think these photos of her are fabulous and I even like what she had to say. Especially her answer to the first question

Louise Bryan

Right on! Having babies is a very expensive choice fraught with responsibility, not a gender imperative, especially in such an over-crowded world.

VictoriaDiNardo

Yes, so true, but we are in the midst of a very baby/child-idolized period. Over-population as an issue seems to have disappeared from popular consciousness, but with all the environmental challenges facing us I can’t imagine why.

drdarke

Religious Conservatism, @VictoriaDiNardo – because the Old Men (usually White in the West, but more on the Brown side in Muslim countries) are really truly scared of sharing power with women and men who don’t kowtow to them, and have the freedom to make them piss off. That freedom is harder to take when you have hostages (Ie, children)….

purpleprose78

Birth rates are the lowest that they’ve ever been. (Interesting article in Time this week.) As a childless thirty something, I enjoyed it. Zooey annoys me and I don’t typically like her style, but whoever styled her did it right here. It is her style, but more interesting looking.

RebeccaKW

I think b/c it’s a more grown-up version of her style. It’s sophisticated-twee, not little girl-twee.

Lucía Gavello

EXACTLY, also, we just have a few lines of the interview here but can anyone who read the whole thing tell me if the journalist was for some reason mad at her? I mean, it reads like: “Y U NO CHILDREN? Y U DIVORCE? Y U SPEAK DUMB?”.

Imasewsure

Yes and with a subtext…”You are an old actress, and you are barren and unmarriagable!” I think I would come out swinging…

http://vhanna26.typepad.com Vera

Dumb, unimaginative questions indeed. Seems like the “journalist” was stuck in the 1950’s.

PastryGoddess

Zoey-bot looks pretty darn good here. I concur about the floral Valentino. She was meant to wear that

But I think the reason you don’t is because having children doesn’t have to be a priority for men. They don’t have a biological clock ticking. They don’t have to plan ahead for optimal fertility. They don’t have to worry if their body is in shape. Expecting a baby doesn’t mean stopping and restarting their career. I think it’s a legit question for a woman…. but also extremely insensitive. I’m not sure if it’s something we need to know. And if she’s already said she won’t answer it, then it’s disrespectful.

Airkisses

Yes, women have biological considerations that men don’t have. The thing is, if two people are in a relationship, all those decisions should ideally be made as a couple. Just because women carry the pregnancy doesn’t mean that the men aren’t also fathers to those children — and THAT’S what you rarely hear men asked about in interviews.

fursa_saida

You also never hear men being asked whether it’s difficult to juggle work and familiy/fatherhood, whether it’s possible to “have it all,” whether having kids has changed their lives, etc. I could maybe, maybe accept that especially in such a body-focused industry it could be legit to ask that question more to one half of the population than another, but it’s part of a larger question-cluster (so to speak) with all those others, and that’s pointing to a real imbalance.

conniemd

Not only that, but for TV stars, for example, roles have to be worked around due to obvious pregnancy, a problem men never have. For movie, some can’t be done when pregnant. It sucks, but is a biological fact of life that being pregnant affects female’s careers in the way it doesn’t affect men.

Regardless, it’s not asked in that context, but in a personal snoopy context, so it should be asked of men as well.

RebeccaKW

I agree. If she’s an action star, I could understand a question regarding that-the punishment you put your body through training for fight scenes, etc., does that affect your decision to have kids/put off having them, etc. But to ask if having kids is a priority just b/c you are a lady is sexist and I wouldn’t answer it either.

Celandine1

It’s not a legit question for a woman because the only people who’s business it is if children are a priority are the woman and her partner.

shorty j

didn’t we recently establish that the whole “you must have a baby before 35 or you’ll never have one bc optimal fertility” thing is scientifically…pseudoscience? And based on something like French statistical data from the 17th century?

marlie

It’s completely reasonable for it to be a concern of hers (IF it is), but it’s NOT reasonable for the question to be asked.

Airkisses

I immediatey like her more now because of that response

fursa_saida

Same.

AnaRoW

I actually have heard it asked of men but it’s not nearly as common. It usually comes up for some other reason. For example when George Clooney first started saying he didn’t want to marry again, he’d get a follow-up question about kids. Or Johnny Depp being asked (a long time ago) how he liked playing a father in a movie he was starring in, which would lead to a question on whether he wanted any. I’ve never heard it just blurted out like they do with women though.

drdarke

More like “Not as often” than “Never” asked of men, @elirt – but the prejudice is still there.

I tell people we have ten kids – nine with four legs, one with three…and they all purr….

giddypony

I think there is confirmation bias =- SImon Cowell has been asked.

elirt

Simon Cowell was asked due to a scandal – totally different scenario!

Julie Chase

I love her generally, and in that Valentino. And her answer to the first question was awesome.

lexilexi

She is gorgeous… and good for her. Love her responses.

Laurieandclaire

Really like the Saint Laurent pic. It’s nice to see her as an adult and not a tween.

Imasewsure

The makeup is weird on that third shot but still kind of cool… must be hard to be talked to like a child all of the time but I guess that’s part of the image problem of dressing like one… still kudos to her for sticking up for herself against the constant and inane banter of the celeb interview!

Joyce VG

I love Zooey so much! She’s so beautiful and talented.

MilaXX

I like the more relaxed hair on her. It does a lot to tamper down the twee, while still being very Zooey.

Belvane

That Valentino pic isn’t so much twee as mod. Very Mary Quant for the 21st century. And I think interviewers should start asking all male stars that question, and be sure to tie it in with their career plans: “So, after you have kids, will you keep making movies?”

AmeliaEve

You took the words right out of my mouth. Mary Quant was my immediate thought. It’s the dress, but also the dark eyes with the light lips and the straight-up gaze like a David Bailey picture.

hughman

She is serving up all kinds of “Rosemary’s Baby” in the Valentino. Me likey.

Shawn EH

Okay, now I’ll go change mine to some other scary movie! You beat me!

Amanda Herriott Welliver

Zooey looks great; the Valentino model scares me.

Little_Olive

Really, her knees are offensive to health.

alyce1213

This may be the best I’ve seen her. Love love love her in the Valentino.

anotherkate

Good for her! Like to see celebs calling out interviewers for their sexist questions. As for the photos, I feel like whoever styled this took her natural twee-girl style and roughened it up just a bit. It really works for her! I love her in that star cardigan.

fursa_saida

Remember when Anne Hathaway trolled the shit out of an interviewer about his catsuit question? Just a few months after Scarlett Johanssen blatantly lost her temper at the same guy for asking her essentially the same question? It was beautiful.

filmcricket

Oh man, I didn’t know until now that it was the same guy. You’d think he’d have learned his lesson. That is hilarious.

Tanya Wade

It’s her schtick, but she owns it. Love that floral dress – I really can’t see anyone else in it but her.

SpillinTea

I hope Uncles T and Lo opine on Oprah’s latest cover. Its pure WERQ!

sagecreek

At least they made her stop doing the insane head cock. She looks good here.

Snailstsichr

AHA! That’s why I’m liking these photos so much!

nannypoo

I think she’s really adorable and she looks beautiful here. I assume the 64 sister wives story is about someone else.

Chartreusite

Girlfriend looks way better with a slighter edge to her look. This is still very much within her wheelhouse, but she looks so much better here style-wise than she usually does on the redcarpet. Snaps to her for handling the interviewer’s question in a civilized yet assertive manner. Good for her.

http://dontmakeitlikeimdumb.blogspot.com/ annabelle archer

Things I love: Zoey, New Girl, the Valentino dress.
Things I like: Her answers, her cover shot.
Things that make me stabby: Valentino’s ideal model size.

Fordzo

The legs scare me. I honestly think my upper arms are bigger around than her thighs.

marlie

GASP. Fer realz.

pookiesmom

I love her so much. Twee or not, she’s a freaking badass.

Fordzo

Asking a woman (ANY woman, celebrity or not) if children are on her to-do list is just plain nosey. The only men who get asked this question are unwed men “of a certain age” (George Clooney, Simon “Never Say Never” Cowell, etc.)

Erica

Yeah, the starting time for that question differs. Women, around 30, no? The male celebrities, more like 45.

demidaemon

Actually, I don’t think there is an age limit on this question for women, sadly.

sekushinonyanko

Well Mr. Cowell just knocked up someone’s wife, so it’s coming. And in the messiest, named in the divorce kind of way possible.

Fordzo

Hence my “Never Say Never” snark. If a man really feels that way, he needs to do something about it. *snip, snip*

sekushinonyanko

Men seem to often have some sort of difficulty being able to understand that intercourse is, in addition to a fun leisure activity, a quite reliable way of producing children. It’s all so very abstract to a lot of them that they don’t even understand that if he’s having sex with a woman on purpose, then her getting pregnant is not exactly a surprising result. Even condom boxes print on there that sometimes babies happen anyway.

danielle morgan

I’m a devoted bitter kitten of 3 years but have never commented. Until now. I love me some Zooey, even when she wears tights because I’m a strawberry blonde with very pale skin who really looks forward to tights season. Also, Zooey gets huge props from me for that answer on the kid thing. As a proud, child-free 36-year-old, I say good on her. And, suck it, interviewer person! I have even more reason to keep watching New Girl and continue buying all She & Him albums.

VictoriaDiNardo

Welcome to the commentariat!

Re: the kid thing: As an older child-free, one of the best things about hitting fifty is that people finally stopped asking that none-of-their-business question!

Alyssa

That gives me hope that one day I’ll stop getting asked when I’m having my second. I’m 28, my daughter is 5, and my husband and I have no plans for more children. People in general always assume you need at least two kids to be happy. I just don’t understand it!

RebeccaKW

Or that you have to have at least one of each. I have a friend with 2 girls and she’s constantly getting asked when they are going to try for a boy.

Erica

We have 3 (the 2nd and 3rd are twins), 2 boys and a girl, and we get asked if we’re having more! We break into peals of laughter over that question–not to mention that we are not young parents. People are nosy and they don’t make the effort to think of a more interesting question.

marlie

I’ve had friends get asked “why” they’re only having one. Like, the ask-er is mad about it.

Alyssa

I get that a lot too…they accuse me of being selfish and that my child will suffer from not having siblings to grow up with. I even used to get it from my mother-in-law…she’s finally stopped though.

formerlyAnon

Like 1 & 2, in #3 you get a hint of how soon she’s going to be Too Old for that twee stuff, no matter how ingrained it is into her persona.

Little_Olive

I really am not loving the cover. The mouth, the exaggerated hair in the same way she always wears it, the way they chopped off the top of her head.

The others I like better. She should pick up on the improvement that a little “edgy” brings to her sweet style. She can carry it.

Nice response to the ubiquitous, nosy children question.

kimiakay

Love the Valentine, wish she’d kept the collar. I know she’s probably quite Photoshopped, but her pics lately have made her face seem really different. Sometimes I almost don’t recognize her. It’s weird.

Phyllis Craine

Thank GOD the stylist talked her out of wearing the collar out on the floral dress

http://angrynerdgirl.net/ Jessi03

I think she made it into a henley collar.

teensmom99

There’s nothing wrong with knowing your style–it’s when you wear the same thing all the time that it goes to “of course” territory. so I’d say the flowered dress works because it’s her kind of look but not the same old same old. Flatters but not the usual.

MannahattaMamma

I love these pictures & her answers to the questions (especially question 1), but can we talk about the spiked tights? I mean, er…how far up the leg do those spikey bits go? I mean, there’s suffering for fashion and then there are…spikey tights.

Imasewsure

And there is that sweater I am in love with again!

unbornfawn

A baby step in the right direction for Ms. Zooey.

kmk05

I’ve never said ‘FUCK YEAH’ at a celebrity’s answers. but today’s the day. Her comebacks to those inane questions are beautiful. I don’t watch New Girl, but I’m thinking I should start.

http://angrynerdgirl.net/ Jessi03

I have been very vocal about my annoyance with Ms. Deschanel, but her answer to that first question gives me LIFE! I hate her marginally less now. Good on you, girl.

decormaven

Gorgeous shots, and good answers. Round of applause!

ashtangajunkie

I rarely like her movies and I don’t watch “New Girl,” but I’ve always really liked her. I love these photos and very much appreciate her answers.

jmorino08

Both of the first two shots make her look like shes’ sitting on the toilet to me. And I can’t unsee that.

Shawn EH

The dress is twee in a “Legend of Hell House” kind of way; too twee to live because of evil ghosts! But lovely.

Andsheewas

Those tights!

http://cheekypinky.wordpress.com cheekypinky

Bless her for that first answer.

marlie

She looks really good here. And I really appreciate her answer to the first question.

NoveltyRocker

I saw the cover and thought to myself that I guess I really don’t know what Zooey Deschanel looks like because her face varies so much in her pictures. I didn’t even recognize her here. But that second shot hit me like that’s her! Or at least how her acting persona comes off. She looks so alive… weird, because she’s all styled to look zoned out. The wide-eyed dolly stare in the third shot is how I usually recognize her but even that has a little something else mixed in than the usual.

librarygrrl64

Is having children on her priority list?: “I’m not going to answer that question. I’m not mad at you for asking that question, but I’ve said it before: I don’t think people ask men those questions.”